瓦比之家蘑菇亭丨墨西哥丨OMA

Architects:OMA

Area:200m²

Year:2024

Photographs:Rafael Gamo

Category:Mixed Use Architecture,Pavilion,Community

Partner In Charge:Shohei Shigematsu

Project Architects:Shary Tawil, Caroline Corbett

Team:Dylan Wei, Francesco Rosati

City:Puerto Escondido

Country:Mexico

Text description provided by the architects. The Mushroom Pavilion is now open at Fundación Casa Wabi, joining the campus of art and community facilities founded by Mexican artist Bosco Sodi. The project marks OMA's first built work in Mexico. Located in the foundation's sprawling 65 acres of natural landscape between the mountains and the Oaxacan coast, the Mushroom Pavilion is a space for cultivating mushrooms while fostering exchange between food, art, nature, and local communities.

Conveying its simple yet important function, the pavilion is a basic, ellipsoidal form created to optimize interior organization for growing mushrooms. Within, the domed interior can be divided into three chambers – fruiting room, incubation room, and storage – encircling a gathering space at the heart of the pavilion. The lower half of the bowl is stepped, like an amphitheater in the round, to make shelves for handmade terra cotta mushroom pots crafted by local artisans. The stepping and elliptical form create a panopticon viewing experience, rendering the mushroom growing process visible in its entirety.

The concrete shell is composed of troweled and poured-in-place concrete, burlap stamped on the outside to retain the site's high iron content water. Conceding to the natural elements, the pavilion will rust and change in appearance over time.

"Working with Bosco Sodi and Fundacion Casa Wabi, we conceived a pavilion for the very specific function of mushroom cultivation while offering a space for people to come together. The result is an incubator of both food and community that's spatially fit to support all types of activities for the locals, visitors, and the foundation. As a Japanese architect, it was especially meaningful to contribute to an art campus guided by Japanese philosophy and spatial traditions." – Shohei Shigematsu, OMA Partner

Project gallery